Lindor envisions amazing Classic for Puerto Rico

DETROIT — Francisco Lindor is 22 years old, the same age as young men and women walking around college campuses in caps and gowns at this time of year. He’d match any commencement speaker’s definition of accomplishment and ambition: one of the best two-way shortstops on the planet, an emerging spokesman for Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program and the youngest No. 3 hitter in the Major Leagues not named Carlos Correa.

So Lindor is busy. Yet a couple hours before his Cleveland Indians opened a series Friday in Detroit, he welcomed questions about a tournament that’s more than 10 months away.

• World Baseball Classic coverage

Lindor, like many in Puerto Rico, has been been fixated on the 2017 World Baseball Classic since his homeland’s surprise run to the 2013 Classic championship game. Lindor was 12 when he attended the 2006 Classic at San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium, about 20 miles from his family’s home in Caguas. Now he dreams of being on the same field in March, turning double plays with Correa, the 21-year-old dynamo and fellow standard-bearer for baseball’s resurgence on the island.

“It gives me chills,” said Lindor, who moved to Florida before eighth grade and attended high school at Montverde Academy near Orlando. “I love Puerto Rico. I can’t wait to play in front of that crowd. It’s going to be the first time I’ve played in Puerto Rico since I was probably 14, 15 years old. I’m looking forward to that moment. I’m looking forward to the drums. I’m looking forward to people screaming.

“Latin baseball — the way the fans get in Puerto Rico, it’s kind of like soccer games here in the States. The soccer fans here are a little more outgoing than baseball fans. We’ve got great [baseball] fans [in the U.S.], but the way that soccer is played … They bring drums. They get a little crazy. That would be the comparison. The fans in Puerto Rico, they love the drums.”

Next spring, the cacophony will herald a singular moment in Puerto Rican baseball history: MLB scouts have spent more time on the island in recent years, drawn back by improving talent at the youth levels. In Correa and Lindor, baseball has generational stars around whom to market the sport — in Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland. And Puerto Rico is expected to have its best Classic roster yet, possibly augmented by U.S.-born players of Puerto Rican ancestry.

Outfielder George Springer — Correa’s teammate with the Astros — has decided that if he plays in the 2017 Classic, he will do so for Puerto Rico. Rockies MVP-caliber third baseman Nolan Arenado and Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman are eligible to represent Puerto Rico, too. (Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta has Puerto Rican heritage, but he is undoubtedly very …

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